Robin Page (2 November 1932 – 12 May 2015) was a British painter. He was one of the early members of the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

art movement.

Biography

Page was born in England in 1932. His father, Peter Carter-Page, was a humorist and cartoonist who worked as an animator at the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

studios in Hollywood in the 1930s. The family moved to Canada where the young Page lived until the age of 27. Page moved back to Europe in 1959 and after teaching at the revolutionary environment of

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Scho ...

in the north of England until 1967 he moved to Germany found himself in the company of the international network of

artists, such as

Robert Filliou Robert Filliou (17 January 1926 – 2 December 1987) was a French artist associated with Fluxus, who produced works as a filmmaker, "action poet," sculptor, and happenings maestro. Life In 1943, Filliou became a member of the French Communi ...

Dieter Roth Dieter Roth (April 21, 1930 – June 5, 1998) was a Swiss artist best known for his artist's books, editioned prints, sculptures, and works made of found materials, including rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot. ...

Dorothy Iannone Dorothy Iannone (August 9, 1933 – December 26, 2022) was an American visual artist. Her autobiographical texts, films, and paintings explicitly depict female sexuality and "ecstatic unity."Rosenberg, Karen"An Iconoclast Who Valorizes the Ero ...

Daniel Spoerri Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...

Ben Vautier Ben Vautier, also known simply as Ben (born 18 July 1935 in Naples, Italy), is a French artist. Vautier lives and works in Nice, where he ran a record shop called ''Magazin'' between 1958 and 1973. Biography Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 Ju ...

, et al. His artwork embraced the sentiments of the movement. Namely, its 'anti-art' stance, inherited from the Dadaists, and its emphasis on the event as an artwork (called a

Happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

or an Action Event). Page performed many Happenings, including one titled ''Guitar'', which involved him in kicking his guitar with the help of an audience along the Mall for the ICA's Misfits concert. Other events involved Page making a chalk portrait drawing of

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

, complete with begging bowl, on the pavement in front of the National Gallery. In 1966 he was with

Gustav Metzger Gustav Metzger (10 April 1926, Nuremberg – 1 March 2017, London) was a German artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the Destruction in Ar ...

, Otto Muehl,

Wolf Vostell Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happenings and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are ch ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

and others a participant of the

Destruction in Art Symposium The Destruction in Art Symposium (a.k.a. DIAS) was a gathering of a diverse group of international artists, poets, and scientists to London from 9–12 September, 1966. Included in this number were representatives of Fluxus and other counter-cult ...

(''DIAS'') in London. By 1970, Page left the Fluxus movement and moved to Germany. He began to develop his own brand of cutting edge art and was one of the first artists to employ humour as a means of overtly challenging notions of 'good taste' in the art world. His ''Hey Wildon'' paintings stand as one of Page's alter-ego puppets that mocked and commented on 'art' while at the same time embodied the traditional techniques of painting. Page poses the question " Hey, Whildon, why has humour never replaced seriousness as the most respectable cultural attitude?" to which Whildon replies "Because people can't fake it!" Page's artwork continued to develop an overtly biting and satirical commentary on cultural pretensions. By 1987 he had "died and gone to Bluebeard" which involved him in dying his beard blue (executed by Mike Spike Froidl
see the appropriate painting here
and producing a series of paintings that appropriate elements from poster and propaganda art. His Bluebeard AMuseum further places Page at the forefront of contemporary art; by both mocking the notion of the Institution and placing himself at the centre of his art 'collection', Page challenges the very basis upon which power is assigned to private and state-run and cultural organisations. One notable example is the painting ''Freedom is a Burning Brush'' which features the artist posing as the Statue of Liberty holding a paintbrush as a torch.

Happenings (Action Events)

*1962: ''The Door'', London. ''Art Indicator'', London. ''Guitar Piece'', Misfits Concert, ICA, London. ''Simultaneous Document of the Space Flight of American Astronaut Walter Shira'', London. *1963: ''Plant Piece'', Little festival of New Music, London. ''Two Stones'' London and the Fluxus Festival, Nice. ''Wrap-up'', BBC, New Comment, London. ''The Measurement of Motivation'', London. *1965: ''Eclipse'', Theatre Royal, Stratford, London. *1966: ''Krow 1'', Destruction in Art Symposium, London. ''Beach Boxes'', Scarborough. ''Merry Christmas '66'', Leeds. *1967: ''Action Lecture on War'', Cardiff. ''Protest March'', Leeds. *1968: ''Professor Protozoa's Mini Majestic Bilou Road Show Yeah'', City of London Festival. ''The Wild Man of Woburn'', Woburn Abbey. ''Event for Liz'', St. Valentine's Eve, Bradford. ''Concert of Experimental Music'', Commonwealth Institute, London.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*1969: Art Intermedia, Cologne *1971: Eat Art Gallery, Düsseldorf *1972: Galerie Muller, Cologne *1973: Kunstverein, Cologne; Galerie Muller, Stuttgart; Galerie Gunter Sachs, Hamburg *1974: Galerie Foncke, Ghent; Salon de Mai, Paris (travelled to Braunschweig, Germany and Lijnbaacentrum, Rotterdam) *1975: Gallery Allen, Vancouver *1977: Junior Galerie, Goslar, Germany; Galerie Vallois, Paris *1979: Galerie Redmann, Sylt, Germany;

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

, Berlin *1980: Galerie Redmann, Berlin; Galerie Redmann at ART'80, Basle; Kunsthalle, Darmstadt, Germany *1982: Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany *1993: Galerie Klewan Munich

Group exhibitions

*1953: Young West Coast Painters, Vancouver *1954: West Coast Hard Edge, Seattle *1962: Festival of Misfits, Gallery One, London; Richmond Jazz Festival *1963: Ten Year Show, Gallery One, London *1964 Cross Section, City Museum, Leicester; About Round, University of Leeds *1965: 45th Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London; Structures Vivantes, Redfern Gallery, London; Then & Now, Park Square Gallery, Leeds. *1966: Form& Image, City Museum, Leeds; Destruction in Art, Symposium, Leeds *1967: Concrete/Spatial Poetry, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham. *1969: Amadou in A, Antwerpen *1970: Happenings & Fluxus, Kunstverein, Koln *1972: Szene Rhein-Ruhr,

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

, Essen; Documenta 5, Kassel; Freunde ded Museums Sammein (Collections of the Friends of the Museum), Museum Folkwang, Essen *1973: 6th International Triennial of Coloured Graphic Prints, Grenchen Galerie Muller, Koln.

Publications

*Paul Gravett, (2007) Pulp Fiction, Hayward Gallery Publishing, Southbank Centre, London *J. Gray, (1993) Action Art, Greenwood Press, CT, USA, *Karl-Heinz Hering, (1974) Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Verheyen & Schulte, Düsseldorf *'Art in a Brown Paper Bag', Weekend Magazine (Montreal), May, 1975 *'I am a Unique Idiot',

Marq de Villiers Marq de Villiers, is a South African-Canadian writer and journalist. He now chiefly writes non-fiction books on scientific topics. In the past he also worked as a magazine editor and foreign correspondent. Biography Marq de Villiers was born in ...

, Weekend Magazine, (Montreal), May, 1975 *'Artist Dips His Brush in Canadian Wry', Art Perry, Vancouver Province, November, 1974 *'Everybody Invited',

John Anthony Thwaites John Anthony Thwaites (21 January 1909 - 21 November 1981) was a British art critic and author, who lived and worked in West Germany from 1946. Biography Thwaites studied history at the universities of Lausanne and Cambridge. From 1931 he was a ...

, Art and Artists, London, November 1974 *'Robin Page, Galerie Muller', G. Wirth, Das Kunstwerke, Baden-Baden, July 1973 *'A Note on Robin Page', E.Lynn, Art International, Lugano, May 1973 *'Robin Page: Bildparabeln, Exhibition Catalogue', Augsburg, 1982 *'Mail Art: Communication a Distance', Jean-Marc Poinsot, Paris, 1971 *'Robin Page', Flash Art, May 1972

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Robin Fluxus British performance artists 1932 births 2015 deaths